


excalibur

by bellygunnr



Series: take a left down memory lane onto calhoun street [2]
Category: Half-Life
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Mid-Canon, Some angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:48:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24541081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellygunnr/pseuds/bellygunnr
Summary: He pries the tool out from its home in the dirt, thinking vaguely of distant tales from the Old World. King Arthur, or something like that.
Series: take a left down memory lane onto calhoun street [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1773649
Comments: 2
Kudos: 57





	excalibur

Calhoun wouldn't have thought anything of the crowbar if not for the crude orange paint scrawled in a greek letter on its notched end. Old, rotten fluids are dried on it, and its opposite end is bent out of shape, belying extreme and improper use. Worse, or perhaps most strangely of all, patterned hand prints seem to be permanently etched into the metal, ones much larger than his own.

He pries the tool out from its home in the dirt, thinking vaguely of distant tales from the Old World. King Arthur, or something like that. Who was worthy to wield a sword stuck in stone? Apparently him, for today at least. 

Swords-- or crowbars-- must look deeper than the skin. Maybe they didn't look at the soul at all, though. Everyone's soul was a little black by now, no matter what the priests and preachers protested. Barney turns his head up toward the sky. Inky, black, lightless with a clouded moon. He wasn't a religious man, but this felt like a sign somehow. Things would get better. He straps the crowbar to his back.

"If this thing's here, then Gordon is sure to follow."

For now, he would wield the crowbar. Maybe get it back into shape. Clean it up. Until Gordon came back. 

**Author's Note:**

> more calhoun studying. post-cascade, pre-half life 2. another request for a folk on discord.


End file.
